Would it be possible to shoot at any of the variable frame rates besides 480/24P and 480/30P straight to the P2 cards? And since it'd be going to the P2 cards wouldn't 480/60P be possible, instead of just 480/60i?

Yes, sort of. You can shoot in 720p at any of those frame rates, and then downconvert in real-time from the P2 card to the miniDV tape. So you can get the effect of having shot in 480/60p, except that it's translated/downconverted to DV on the tape.

I'm not talking about downconverting 720p to tape. I'm asking would it be possible to shoot at one of the rumored frame rates like 48P, but in 480 resolution to the P2 cards, without tape being involved in the process?

I'm just wondering casue pretty much everything that I would shoot above of 24p, besides some 60i, would be used for slow motion, and staying at 480 resolution would allow me to do this untill I can upgrade to an HD ready edit system.

The majority of the variable frame rates are only possible in 720p.

In 480p, the only frame rates you have available (technically) are 24p, 30p, and 60i. Using a combination of progressive-scan and slow shutter speeds you can get many more frame rates, but they're all slower: 3p, 4p, 6p, 8p, 12p, and 15p are all possible.

But there are no faster frame rates possible in 480.

As said before, you can get the effect of variable frame rates in a standard-def project by shooting 720p and then downconverting to tape, but that sounds like it's not what you want.

You could always just shoot 720p and down-rez in your editing application to get to 480p...

You could always just shoot 720p and down-rez in your editing application to get to 480p...

Awesome, thanks for all the info.